LETTER TO D. I. KURSKY AND ASSIGNMENT TO N. P. GORBUNOV

Written:Written on February 15, 1922Published:First published in 1945 inLenin Miscellany XXXV.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1976,

      Moscow,Volume 45,

      pages470b-471a.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet ArchiveYou may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

ComradeKursky:

Ienclose Koblents’s reply to
me.[1]After reading, please,
return to N. P. Gorbunov:

1)Ivery strongly suspect that Koblents is poor, and
that the whole of this department is poor too.

Koblentshas clearly “forgotten” that an enterprise leased
from the Soviet power isstillaSovietenterprise;

2) ——confusedthe question about subsequent or
preliminary audit with the question of whether or not it is liable
to auditing at all;

3)hehas apparently “forgotten” that the rights of the
Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection arenot narrowerthan
the State Control’s old powers (Collection of Statutes, 1920,
No. 16); he has forgotten many other things as well.

Conclusion:Koblents’s opinion must be checked up, and
if a careful study shows that Koblents has told a lie, he
should be replaced by a more solid lawyer.

Letme know whom you will appoint as responsible for
this check-up.

———Ifour laws are “contradictory” (of which there is
no doubt), what are the People’s Commissariat for Justice
and the Legislative Proposals Department for?

Whatthen is being done towards codification?—towards
removal of contradictions?

Inparticular,this isjustthe timeforurgentlyworking
out a clear and precise law on the extension of the W.P.I.’s
powers to audit and inquire to all manner of establishments
and enterprises (private, co-operative, concession, etc.).

Letme know who will be given this assignment.

Withcommunist greetings,Lenin

ComradeN. P. Gorbunov:

Pleaseread this andmake a note of it for yourselfto
keep an eye on execution.

Havethis typed and sent to Comrade
Kursky.[2]

[1]SeeCollected Works, Fifth [Russian) Edition, Vol. 54,
Supplement, Document 16.—Ed.

[2]Thefollowing day, February 16, 1922, D. I. Kursky replied
to Lenin’s letter, informing him that be had instructed V. I.Yakhontov, member of the Collegium of the People’s
Commissariat for Justice and head of the Codification Department, to
verify I. G. Koblents’s conclusion. Kursky wrote about the draft
Statute of Obligations, Criminal Code, etc., which had been
submitted for approval by the C.P.C., and about the elaboration of
a number of laws at the People’s Commissariats for Agriculture,
Labour, and Justice. He admitted that there were contradictions
in the existing laws. Sharing Lenin’s view on the “need to
guarantee the state full auditing and control”, Kursky wrote that he
would “consider highly useful a C.C. directivein this respect
for the Narrow C.P.C...” (underlined by Lenin) (seeLenin
Miscellany XXXV, p. 326).